Nothing against Dana Altman. Terrence Jones simply did not want to play for a coach that he had not gotten to know.“That was pretty much the problem for me – I didn't know the coach,’’ Jones said after making his announcement at the high school. “I didn’t want to go to a school where I had no idea who the coach was.’’

The Ducks were not in Jones’ top three – it was Washington, Kentucky and Kansas, in that order – and the 6-foot-8 McDonald’s All-American, the nation’s third-ranked power forward according to Rivals.com, never even talked to Altman.

Jones thanked “Coach Ya,’’ meaning Yasir Rosemond, an assistant on Ernie Kent’s staff. The Ducks announced Kent’s dismissal on March 16 and the hiring of Altman on Monday – 41 days later.

At the press conference announcing Altman’s hire, former Oregon athletic director Pat Kilkenny said he did feel pressure to land a coach to have a shot at Jones and Jefferson teammate Terrence Ross, who also chose Washington on Friday.

As it turns out, it was too late.

“My phone’s been blown up like crazy, I pretty much just stopped answering the numbers I didn’t know, really, just to take time to think about it,’’ Jones said. “I haven’t checked my voicemail or anything. I think he’s called. My mother told me he called her.’’

Ross has been assumed to be strongly leaning to the Huskies for quite some time, but Jones kept his decision to himself until he put on that Huskies hat on Friday, for good reason – he didn’t know.

So Oregon probably didn’t lose out on both Terrences, but the Ducks might have jeopardized even more than Jones with the lengthy search. Jones said other players wanted to go to Oregon with him “if things worked out with certain coaches,’’ although he didn’t specify who those coaches were.

For Altman, there’s no doubt Jones would have been a good fit, especially considering he has four open scholarships, but the new coach said this week that he was concentrating on the players who are already in Eugene.

“We’re building this for the long term,’’ Altman said. “We’re not going to chase somebody late that we don’t feel will help us long term.’’